Gas and electricity price hike to hit East Lancashire residents (From Chorley Citizen)
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Gas and electricity price hike to hit East Lancashire residents
5:00pm Saturday 13th October 2012 in East Lancashire
A HIKE in the cost of gas and electricity will deal a blow to already-worried East Lancashire pensioners, according to a charity boss.
British Gas has announced it will increase prices by six per cent from next month, meaning the the average annual bill will increase by around £80 to £1,238.
Rival fuel company SSE, which trades as Southern Electric, Swalec and Scottish Hydro, is due to increase tariffs by 9 per cent Monday, hitting about five million electricity customers and 3.4 million gas customers.
Vicky Shepherd, deputy chief officer of Age UK Blackburn with Darwen, said pensioners could be worse hit than most.
She said: “I know a lot of local older people are concerned about the cost of fuel bills already, so this news is only going to increase their concern.
“Pensioners are living on a fixed income and to find that extra money might mean they have to cut back on other expenditure. For some people, it might mean turning the heating off when it really should be on.
“Pensioners do get help from the Winter Fuel Payment, and everyone is very grateful for that, but potentially, the average cost increases are more for older people as they tend to be less mobile and stay inside the house more, and they are more likely to have a health condition meaning that they need to keep warm.”
Explaining the price rise, Phil Bentley, the British Gas managing director, said: “Britain’s North Sea gas supplies are running out, and British Gas has to pay the going rate for gas in a competitive global marketplace.
”Furthermore, the investment needed to maintain and upgrade the national grid to deliver energy to our customers’ homes, and the costs of the Government’s policies for a clean, energy-efficient Britain, are all going up.”
Comments(16)
RUinsane
says...
5:36pm Sat 13 Oct 12
2 for 5p
says...
6:19pm Sat 13 Oct 12
Noiticer
says...
6:35pm Sat 13 Oct 12
shytalk
says...
6:58pm Sat 13 Oct 12
..Defra approved ( if you live in a smokless area )
Watch your fuel bills drop through the floor.
mavrick
says...
7:05pm Sat 13 Oct 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58
says...
7:07pm Sat 13 Oct 12
2 for 5p wrote:I doubt Arthur was right at all 2 for 5p we could not burn coal in our power stations if we wanted to European legislation has seen to this.
This is what happens when You close down the mining industry as arthur scargil says told you so . He pridicted this in 84 again the country let down by the torys and SCABs , oh sorry I forgot all torys are SCABs.
Michael@ClitheroeSince58
says...
7:09pm Sat 13 Oct 12
shytalk wrote:I bought mine last year but still have not got it fitted, hopefully in the next few weeks we shall see.
Get a woodburner/multifuel
..Defra approved ( if you live in a smokless area )
Watch your fuel bills drop through the floor.
Michael@ClitheroeSince58
says...
7:14pm Sat 13 Oct 12
mavrick wrote:Hi Maverick if you do a bit of research you will find all these increases are to pay for the wind farm networks etc. We are paying for a useless technology that does not work that's the worst part about it :(
There can be no justification for such huge increases. I have to say the last government was not a labour government , We are being robbed by these companies which were ours before being privatised. Just like the Banks are going to screw us over big time, you can,t demand to be paid in cash anymore or pay bills by weekly book payments in cash without being charged extra. we need to take back control of our utilities. The Tories have always lined their own pockets first at the expense of the tax payer.
Michael@ClitheroeSince58
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7:19pm Sat 13 Oct 12
Good call
says...
8:46pm Sat 13 Oct 12
Michael@ClitheroeSince58
says...
8:59pm Sat 13 Oct 12
Good call wrote:Hi Good Call Please read what I wrote to Maverick above this is what we are all having to pay for.
Just another example of the elite robbing more money form the plebs.We are being bled dry by a bunch of scumbags who couldn't care less about the impact of what they do
Pendlesider
says...
10:20pm Sat 13 Oct 12
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utilities companies use 'Incentives' to get your money as fast as possible into their accounts. For example, they offer percentage 'reductions' for schemes such as 'prompt payment' or 'direct debit'.
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If you choose to pay a little each week, then when the dreaded energy bill arrives its either zero or at least manageable and not encroaching into other payments - such as direct debit mortgage payments. Of course this means the energy companies will penalise you for not paying by direct debit in the first instance and you'll receive no DD discounts.
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these 'massive price hikes' by the energy companies are clearly unjustified, yet to ensure the huge increases are 'dampened'; the customer needs to use its purchasing power to make them unsustainable. To do this we should all go back to basics and pay our energy bills in small installments - for example weekly at the post office or other paypoint/payzone outlet.
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Without going into details of 'how' this will stifle the onslaught of unjustified energy price hikes, you will be budgeting better, and at the same time making sure the RIP-OFF energy companies can't make accurate future price increase predictions that currently leave the energy firms in massive surplus profit.
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The criminal increases in energy bills can be curtailed if we all went back to basics and paid a little when we can afford it, and not give the energy rats the lump sums that have enabled them to con us in the past.
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EITHER that, or we all wear thermal clothes and turn the TV off when the X-Factor starts its annual diatribe of manufactured weekly 'excuse' for a top of the pops alternative?
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http://mavericksunit
e.blogspot.co.uk/
jimpy0
says...
9:56am Sun 14 Oct 12
HairyBowls
says...
12:52pm Sun 14 Oct 12
Good call
says...
7:56pm Sun 14 Oct 12
jimpy0 wrote:No actually when where we asked about wanting "green".The utility companies are using it as an excuse to extort more money out of us.
your all slamming the government - but YOU wanted green and green is expensive.
vicn1956 says...
5:20pm Sat 13 Oct 12